Ending weeks of she-said, they-said drama, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin turned in a cameo appearance at the gala fundraising dinner for her party's House and Senate candidates in Washington Monday night.

But in spite of all the back-and-forth between her camp and dinner organizers leading up to the event, Palin's presence went little-noticed.

The Alaska governor sat next to her husband, Todd Palin, at the table of National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn, but she didn’t make any public remarks.

If she hadn't walked quickly across the stage at the outset and if her presence hadn’t been mentioned briefly in the remarks of some of the evening's speakers, it would have been hard to know that she had, in fact, shown up.

Palin’s decision to attend the dinner capped a dizzying weekend of reversals. On Sunday, POLITICO reported that Palin had decided to back out of the dinner after being told that she would not be making remarks. The reason: NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions was worried about upstaging the dinner's keynote speaker, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

On Monday, just hours before the dinner kicked off, Palin reversed herself and said she would attend, even though she would not have a speaking role.

The controversy over Palin’s attendance began in March, when the committees announced that she would be the keynote speaker at the annual fundraising dinner. After Palin’s office said she had not agreed to take on that role, the campaign committees turned to Gingrich – setting off a drama rife with undertones of future presidential politics.

Gingrich himself addressed Palin’s attendance only briefly at the outset of his remarks. "I thank Gov. Palin and Todd for coming here tonight," Gingrich said to applause. The former speaker then commented that seeing Palin and 2008 GOP nominee John McCain both in attendance reminded him that the country would be “amazingly better off had they been elected.”

In his nearly one-hour speech, Gingrich blasted Obama on everything from health care to national security.

“I think our goal should be to reach out to the American people in every possible way, to make sure that John Boehner becomes the speaker of the House January of 2011 and Mitch McConnell becomes the Senate majority leader and that this is a one-term presidency, in the Jimmy Carter tradition.”

Other Republican leaders also kept focused squarely on their Democratic opponents, giving donors plenty of red meat to chew on

“Everyone here is a prime target for Barack Obama and Speaker Pelosi. It’s not because you’re a Republican. It’s because you play by the rules,” declared House Minority Leader John Boehner.

“Ladies and gentlemen, our job on the House side is to retire Nancy Pelosi,” Sessions said to wild applause.

Jon Voight, the Academy Award-winning actor who emceed the night’s event, accused Obama of taking a “sweet-talking” approach to national security and not offering enough support to Israel.

“Pass the Dramamine... I'm dizzy,” read the subject line of one e-mail distributed by the Democratic National Committee.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sent off a mock Palin RSVP to its e-mail list with “Yes” and “No” responses repeatedly crossed off, before giving Palin’s final answer: “Put me down for the moose. Thanks! Gov. Sarah Palin.”

Still, Republicans said they were pleased with the outcome of the dinner, which raised $14.5 million for the NRSC and NRCC. Two thousand people were in attendance, organizers said.

“It was a good showing, and especially considering the resources we have – no presidency – I think the results were good,” said one GOP official in attendance.

“I wouldn’t say [the Palin back-and-forth] was a distraction,” the official said. “I just don’t think it was.”